Monday, April 12, 2010

Voltron Live Action Movie!

It was confirmed by Corona Coming Attractions that both of the scripts written for the Voltron live-action movie have been dumped, resulting the production of the live action version to be rebooted. Justin Marks' and Jeff Davis' scripts will not be used for shooting the movie. Furthermore, Max Makowski will not be directing the project.

Not long ago, Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, and Steve Alexander acquired the live-action film rights to the Voltron animated series from World Event Productions (WEP) with Kickstart Entertainment's Jason Netter. WEP is, but with Atlas Entertainment involving in the project.

In the 1990s, WEP adapted the 1984-1985 television series from two Toei Animation robot anime: King of Beasts Golion (pictured at right) and Armored Fleet Dairugger XV. Both Golion and the first Voltron story revolved around young pilots who fight against an alien empire — with the help of five mechanized lions that combine to form a robot.

It was also revealed that the new working title on the recently announced Voltron animated series to air on Nicktoons is Voltron Force. WEP is also hoping to release a major-platform Voltron video game, and a Voltron OVA in the style of The Animatrix and Batman: Gotham Knight is currently being discussed.

New Regency, a 20th Century Fox-based production company, once negotiated with WEP and the Mark Gordon Company for the live-action Voltron rights in 2007. However, New Regency never actually signed a deal, and other companies were allowed to negotiate for the rights. WEP said in a 2008 lawsuit that New Regency discovered that former Toei character designer Kazuo Nakamura "may possess rights" related to Golion and thus the first Voltron series.

Sylvain White (The Losers, Stomp the Yard) told the IESB.net website at WonderCon this past weekend that he has been approached to direct the live-action Robotech movie. White did not confirm whether or not he would be directing the movie, but did say he was interested in doing it. White also added that he had been sent a script and liked it, but said that the project has not yet been green-lit.

Robotech was Harmony Gold's edited and rewritten adaptation of three separate anime science-fiction series: The Super Dimension Fortress Macross, The Super Dimension Cavalry Southern Cross, and Genesis Climber Mospeada. White indicated that the script he saw was "the first generation" storyline, but he did not directly state it was based on Macross. The producers have yet to announce how they will deal with the copyright dispute between Harmony Gold's partner Tatsunoko Production and the creators of Macross (the most popular of the three anime).